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 places where self-defence is so close to its opposite that it takes some trouble to get the edge of a verdict between the two. Painted Rock did not believe very much in the law. And when after all the storms word came over the wire from Fort Worth that Tom Crowle's appeal against his former partner George Bailey had been dismissed, with costs on appeal, there were some who shook their heads.

"There'll be trouble sure," said Major Simpson, late a corporal in the Confederate Army; "there'll be trouble sartin. Crowle's a mad steer, and it's God's wonder, not to say a Bible and uncontradicted merracle, that he hasn't been disposed of long ago in a nice lonesome cemetery. He makes a specialty of bein' more or less of a bad man in a quiet crowd, and that ain't conducive to longevity in Texas; it ain't conducive."

He drank his cocktail.

"Does Bailey know of this yet, Tom?" he asked the bar-tender.

"Dunno, Major," replied the bar-keeper, "but I seen him go into his office over the way a while back."